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House Rules
=Campaign Rules= In general, unless stated otherwise here, Pathfinder and Pathfinder periphery matter is allowed. If you like, material from Dreamscarred's Ultimate Psionics is permitted. Note that there may not necessarily be much support for a psionic character in the world. Additionally, Dreamscarred's Path of War material is allowed. Other 3rd party material may be allowed with permission. I'm open to allowing D&D 3.5 material, especially items, but only with permission. It needs to be vetted. Expect nerfing. Tome of Battle main classes are allowed until the full Path of War is released. Make sure you check New Content for additional items and conversions. =Gestalt Rules= I'm just going to link the d20 SRD for gestalt for now. One specific thing that a lot of people miss because of the phrasing of sneak attack (that the damage dice always add together) is that it's still a class feature, still from two sides. If you get sneak attack from both sides, it still only accrues at the rate of the class that gets it faster. However, I'm adding a house-ruled exception for familiars. You may, if you desire and have two classes that offer them, have two familiars; or an arcane bonded object and a familiar. For now I'll rule that Power Point pools from gestalt psionic classes combine. I'm pretty open to creating custom prestige classes, as these rules describe. In particular for classes that stack with fighter levels or that add to existing spell casting classes, if you keep up the full version of that class on one side, we can replace that aspect of the prestige class with other benefits. Or for something like Eldritch Knight or Mystic Theurge, you could just keep up your regular classes and replace some abilities from each with the special powers from the prestige class. =Alignment= This section exists to explain how I will adjudicate alignment issues in this game. I feel explaining this is important because it's a nearly completely subjective subject that has objective, in-game ramifications. I will try to avoid putting a lot of emphasis on alignment, but it is still an important component of the game: there are first level spells detect alignment or provide bonuses and penalties based on alignment, and classes that have alignment requirements. I attempt to rule according to the letter of the descriptions of the nine alignments in the Pathfinder SRD, but note my additions below, which may contain additional strictures. When there is a question, I will consider immediate consequences to be a more important determinant of an action than projected ones. For example, killing someone who is currently helpless because they might cause a lot of harm later is not a good act, and letting a prophesied baby of evil live is not evil: “Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends.” —Gandalf Recklessness (or lack of due diligence) can produce unintentional/unknowingly aligned actions. For example: if there's evidence that the enemy cult uses dominated innocents as assassins, killing one might be evil, if you didn't know, it's probably only a little evil; if there's certainly no way you could reasonably have acquired this information before hand, it isn't. Accidentally collapsing the unstable castle on a nearby village probably isn't evil, casting greater shout or earthquake on the obviously avalanche prone mountainside above the same village definitely is. (In fact, if the village is empty, but your character could not have known that, this is an alignment changing-ly evil act.) As this reveals, intent and knowledge are indeed part of alignment changing acts. This is why non supernatural creatures of int <3 are always neutral, no matter how many people they may've killed for food or territory disputes. The sapient but severely mentally disabled may also qualify for non-evil in this case. On the other hand, a person suffering from a strong anti-social disorder is likely to be evil. Whether the disorder is inherent to or apart from the person, the literal supernatural force that is Unholy Power is accrued by them all the same (it's been shown that people cured of such disorders by miracle often change alignments away from evil afterwards). I'll tend to use this rough hierarchy of weighting for considering the motivations of an alignment changing act: Sum of immediate consequences > sum of potential consequences > political agenda/intentions > personal attitude Note that casting spells with an alignment descriptor is an act of that alignment; but intentions can easily change the impact of this act. Summoning evil creatures to save an orphanage is net good, summoning an angel and forcing it to do something evil is double evil, etc. Note that the creation of undead is always evil because it interferes with the proper progression of that soul to its destiny. Detected alignment is not generally moral justification for any particular course of action for or against someone. In the world itself, not a single legitimate court judges a detected alignment as primary evidence, and in most legal systems it is completely inadmissible. I consider personal sacrifice to be the main litmus test for an alignment. Sacrifice for the sake of others is good, for the sake of adhering to an external code of conduct is lawful, and for the sake of freedom is chaotic (whether to free others or to remain beholden to no one depending on the other axis). Evil's test is of course the willingness to cause suffering or death to others for ones own benefit. There is a lot of room for variety. There are usually at least two interpretations of each step on each axis. For instance, any can represent either a personal or political commitment (or both). Neutral can always represent either apathy/unconcern or it can be a philosophical commitment to balance. Chaotic can be a personal commitment to freedom and liberty or it can be an emotional tendency towards caprice. Lawful can be rigorous self-discipline or a commitment to the support of law. on Evil: Evil does not necessarily mean malicious (ie, willing to cause harm and suffering even if it doesn't offer them some benefit). Instead of "evil for evil's sake", think of evil as rapacious, greedy, self-serving, ambitious, murderous, or without scruples. An evil-aligned person or creature may be suffering from a clinical anti-social disorder. But that's only one facet. Evil-aligned people may also see their alignment as a desirable rogueishness; a socially necessarily attitude, eg, gangster/cutthroat because it's the only way to survive on the streets/in business; a belief that they are making hard choices and actions for "the good of society"; or as a kind of noble self-interest, like an objectivist, "Darwinistic", or Nietzschean philosophy (they probably don't say "beyond good and evil" though). Hell, some societies recognize Evil people as a (sorry) necessary evil. Naturally Good people tend to hesitate at killing people for any reason. Who best then to be your soldiers? Some even point to the nature of Hell and the Abyss as ideals of their nature. Many who end up there are tormented for eternity, but the strong, through the fruit of their own labor, rise up to become unspeakably powerful fiends. On Lawful In general, a Lawful character should obey the rule of legitimate authority. A lawful good character is in a position to consider a fundamentally corrupt monarchy as illegitimate. Lawful evil or lawful neutral characters must have some legal basis to believe it is illegitimate (though lawful neutral characters might be tempted to ignore some quibbles for the sake of positive ends, without necessarily being altruistic enough to be lawful good). While rigorous adherence to a personal code of conduct is indicative of a lawful personality (cf the rigorous personal discipline of monks), it's not sufficient or necessary. A lawful alignment at least implies adherence to external order. Lying and breaking ones word are always chaotic actions, and can never be Lawful (even, eg, in support of an ultimately Lawful cause). On the Chaotic Alignments Chaotic might mean capricious and arbitrary, but it doesn't mean banana screwdriver helmet puppy. Typically it focuses on a personal desire to be free of obligations and authority. Chaotic Good: might agitate against an establishment (local government, some part of society, legal system, slavery, some guild, etc) for the good of all. Chaotic Evil: depending on which part of their alignment is more at the fore, they may enjoy taking down established order for its own sake, or it may be an issue of robbing people of protection against them; whether it directly causes suffering or not. Suffering isn't necessarily an inherent benefit to them, though it easily could be. Chaotic Neutral: Typically unwilling, whether through apathy or philosophy, to engage in altruism or cause unnecessary suffering, their chaotic nature is mostly selfish, so this rarely manifests in activism. They are simply unwilling to allow restrictions on their freedom for good or ill. They might engage in some action against an establishment if it will give them personal gain (though that personal gain may only be satisfaction), and they can be convinced no one will suffer greatly from it. There do exist people dedicated to chaos for its own sake, but typically these people are either chaotic evil or misguided chaotic good. =Rulings= I'm not yet deeply familiar with the system, so this list isn't finished or exhaustive, they're mostly just troublesome problems I've come across that I want to fix. Changes Rulings that alter how something works. * Hermean Blood/Island Blood (2 skills of your choice become class skills); renamed "Unusual Training" It no longer has a prerequisite, nor setting specific ramifications. This change preserves the feat ~= 2 traits equivalence. * Hermean Blood now works as follows: "Choose an attribute. All skills tied to that attribute gain a +1 bonus." It retains the prerequsites and ramifications of the original. This may be a little overpowered, but I wanted Hermean blood to still have a purpose, and I feel that it's acceptable for a casual game. * The feat Cantrip Adept grants two additional cantrip slots to preparation casters; it cannot be taken with the trait that grants one additional cantrip slot (or rather, overlaps that trait). This also preserves the feat ~= 2 traits equivalence, and parallels a similar trait for spontaneous casters. * Several combat maneuver feats have been combined. Most "Improved-" and "Greater- Maneuver" feats have been combined into just three. See New Content for details. A reduced feat tax makes it easier to have characters that do more varied things in combat. * The Channel Alignment and Channel Element feats are replaced by "Channel Alignment Power" and "Channel Element", ie, "Channel Holy Power", "... Unholy Power", "... Axiomatic Power", "... Anarchic Power", "... Fire", "... Water", "... Air", "... Earth" "...Heart". A channeler is still restricted to only channeling alignment power associated with an alignment that both they and their diety have (eg, only an evil cleric of an evil god can channel unholy power). When channeling an energy, the channeler may choose to heal creatures with the associated type descriptor or harm those with the opposed descriptor. This brings these feats more in line with how the basic channel energy ability works. * The arcane discovery "Staff-Like Wand" is renamed to "Wand Supremacy". This change is because the original name's meaning is ambiguous when spoken ("Use a staff like a wand? What?"), and is also stupid. * Headbands of Vast Intelligence et al no longer have built-in skill ranks. You get the retroactive skill ranks, however, if you lose and then regain ANY permanent bonus to int, you MUST put the ranks in the same skills. * D&D's weird shuffling about of monster names bugs me often. Gorgon now refers to a feminine creature with brass wings and claws. Not a giant iron cow. * I'm going to regularly interchange the names Ring of Free Action and Ring of Freedom of Movement, don't be confused. Limitations and Removals * Come back later for rules for sleep deprivation, and possibly mental and spiritual hardship. * The Summoner Synergist Archetype is not available. It is overpowered, but much more importantly, it violates a guiding principle of Pathfinder rules design: effects should generally not replace a creature's attributes, only give bonuses or penalties. * The Dazing Spell and Sickening Spell metamagics are not available. They were had no thematic basis, and were too exploitable. * When crafting a magic item, consider there to be an implied prerequisite of "caster level high enough to cast these spells, were they on your class list". This is a paraphrasing from the Pathfinder FAQ. * When creating a scroll, wand, potion, or similar item (single spell spell completion or spell trigger), the source of the spell (another caster, a spell trigger item, etc) decides the type (arcane vs divine) and caster level of the item. This makes obvious sense, and I believe the ability to do otherwise to be an oversight in the rules as written. * In general, you cannot enchant most wondrous items or rings to contain multiple abilities (eg, no rings of invisibility + freedom of movement). The Magic Items Page includes rules for this as guidelines for custom item creation, which should always be done by a GM or with GM approval, not generically by the item crafter. Even given costs, every time a similar item appears in game materials, it is a minor artifact. * Paraphrased from the 3.5 FAQ: Floating Disk can be directed to move to and maintain a position relative to the caster, not to move towards that position. If the caster is sitting on it, it cannot change position relative to the caster, and thus cannot be used as a sort of pseudo-steed. Of course, nothing prevents people other than the caster from riding it like a magical floating saucer horsie. * (Fabricate change removed as I realized what I thought I was fixing was apparently intentional.) * As a general guideline, you may never cast more than two spells (including use spell-like abilities) in one round. Simplifications and Clarifications * This is a low psionics world. As such, in order to prevent psionic classes and monsters from having an unfair advantage, I'm treating it as basically a branch of magic. Spell and power resistance both apply to both magic and psionics. Anti-magic and null-psi effects prevent both magic and psionic manifestation. Etc. And Knowledge(psionics) is subsumed by Knowledge(Arcana). * Weapon Finesse works for unarmed attacks, natural attacks, and melee touch attacks. * You can take Weapon Focus in Ranged Magic and Melee Touch Attacks. The prior applies to any magic (spell, spell-like ability, supernatural power) which has you make a ranged attack (not just rays). The latter applies to melee attacks that you make with your hands (or similar appendage) and resolve against touch AC. You may also choose either of these as "weapons" for some other feats that affect a specific weapon you choose, such as Improved Critical. * 'Draw' "actions" (bring weapon/ammo/component into your hand, ready to use; as opposed to 'retrieve object' maneuvers) can only be accomplished if the weapon or ammunition (or for that matter, spell component) is a) in a sheath/quiver/pouch specifically designed for that purpose, or b) immediately available to hand (eg, on a table to your side, leaning against your leg, arrows stabbed into the ground next to you, etc). You can draw a weapon as part of another action if you have a BAB+1 or greater; you can draw a weapon as a free action if you have the quickdraw feat. You can draw ammunition as a free action. You can draw a spell component as part of casting a spell. Some of the language implies this, I just want to make it clear that you can't, eg, draw a sword from a bag of holding or the ground at your feet under these rules. Remember that the cost of a weapon includes a simple sheath, and the cost of a ranged weapon includes a quiver/pouch for ammunition. * This world does not subscribe to the Rich Burlew etc school of somatic components. The vocal part of a spell is not just the name. It is almost always distinctly identifiable as the verbal component of some spell. * Anyone may use overrun as part of a charge, but it replaces the attack or bull-rush or other ability that would normally take place at the end of the charge. This is a clarification of the description of charging (which implies that you need to be able to take an additional standard action in a round to be able to overrun on charge; do note that if you can take an additional standard action, or have feat support, you may overrun twice when charging, or overrun once and still make an attack or bull-rush at the end). * Weapons with a high enough enhancement bonus can bypass some types of damage reduction as if they were made of a special material or had special properties, but do not gain any of the other associated benefits. +3 or better penetrates DR as if cold iron and silver; +4 or better penetrates DR as if adamantine; +5 or better penetrates as if it were opposed alignment. +6 or better is epic. (this is only possible with a bane, rage, or potent weapon, unless it's an artifact, which penetrates epic regardless). Enhancement bonus alone does not confer any of the other benefits, such as overcoming regeneration, or adamantium's ability to ignore hardness. Note that a +1 enhancement does mean a weapon is magic, and a +6 does mean it is epic. Completely distinct from a high enhancement bonus mimicking special materials. Bane, Rage, and Potent allow weapons to act as having higher bonuses in some circumstances, and this is treated exactly as if the weapon normally had that enhancement bonus. Ranged weapons do confer their enhancement bonus and its effects on their ammunition. Magic Weapon and Greater Magic Weapon explicitly do not provide this bonus. This entry changes nothing, but provides information and hopefully clarification. * It is always the case that an Improved Familiar must be within one alignment step of the bonded character. This replaces both the ambiguous general requirement in that feat's description and the specific requirements on bonded character alignments in the individual creature's descriptions. Note that familiars are not compelled to serve you absolutely, so alignment differences may produce more difficulty than you'd want. Note that non-outsider familiars and familiars without an alignment sub-type can be of alignments other than those given by their creature entries, even if they might be rare. * Unless it explicitly says otherwise, magic items that have any kind of "uses per day", are recharged by the magical aura of the user, and so need to be in the same general area as the user while they get a full night's rest as, eg, a sorcerer or wizard does to regain their spell slots. * Drugs are a just a category of poisons as far as abilities, immunity, and spells are concerned. * Simulacrum is a terribly defined spell. Statements by developers are that the fundamental guideline is that a simulacrum should have a CR = half the CR of the simulated creature. For creatures with a lot of spell like abilities or special powers, this will require notable rebuilding. * Bags of Holding and similar items. First, Bags of Holding are larger (externally) than most tend to think. (I know I'm not the only one with this image in mind; it even shows up in Order of the Stick). Bags of Holding aren't belt pouch size. They're more like laundry bags, or the sack Santa is often shown carrying (in fact, I wonder if that wasn't an inspiration). Held straight up, they're taller than a gnome. No matter what's inside these sacks, they always seem partially full (fuller appearing bags indicate a higher level bag of holding!), even empty. Handy Haversacks are described as backpacks, but in my world they're god damn haversacks (something like a small cloth satchel or messenger bag). If you can come up with a good enough alliterative name you can invent variants (though note the belts of pockets in New Content). Bags of Holding describe themselves as "non-dimensional", but this section specifically calls them extradimensional: d20pfsrd on Extradimensonal Spaces. As stated below, I've over-ruled the limitation on Bags of Holding specifically, allowing them to work in "extradimensonal" spaces like Magnificent Mansion. In exchange, divination spells do penetrate into Bags of Holding. Furthermore, Bags of Holding do not work well when stacked inside each other. Sum the weights and volumes of all the "inside" bags and their contents, these sums must fall under the limit of the "outermost" bag, or some will be ejected. The nature of the interior of Bags of Holding is not very well explained. It certainly doesn't seem to be merely "larger on the inside" (you could root through over 1000 pounds of junk and retrieve a specific item in a full-round action!). But it seems clear that items placed inside do interact, jostle, age, etc. They are not in any kind of stasis or protected from other items in the bag. The bag is air tight when closed, so it is also water proof, or could be filled with liquid intentionally (which will wet anything inside the bag). In any kind of null magic area that affects magic items (eg, anti-magic field), Bags of Holding seem to deflate and become empty, and then act like normal sacks. None of the items stored inside are accessible. As soon as you exit or the field fades, they regain their normal appearance, abilities, and contents. Bags of Holding are very vulnerable to damage from the inside. Almost any active attempt to damage the inside will cause the bag to rupture. This includes attacks by a person trapped inside, activated traps, acid, smoldering coals. They can even be ruptured by simply having unprotected sharp objects placed in when overfull. I'll say this last is only a danger if your bag of holding is approaching full (let's say 80%), or you've put a LOT of sharp stuff in. Rupture by overfilling would require a lot of force shoving the too large object in. The volume limits are extremely generous, and in terms of density only matter if you want to store balloons in them (or possibly unsquished marshmallows and uncompressed high-loft down). This makes me think the designers may have meant that the insides have a regular shape, and thus a dimensional limit of limit^(1/3) on average. Whether or not this is the case, I'm saying that the inside is completely flexible, and only total volume —with some packing inefficiency—matters. (Can you imagine the headache of arbitrating that? I don't think it'll come up often.) Additions and Power Ups * Most of the time when a wizard/sorcerer spell references int or cha, or a cleric spell references wisdom, you may replace that reference with "your casting stat". This is from a statement by a Pathfinder developer, though not yet part of the errata, who stated that these spells were written prior to the existence of oracles (or witches, or alternate casting stat sorcerers, or abilities to get off list spells), and are not intended to gimp those classes/archetypes. * The cloak of resistance, and all of the belts and headbands of stat bonuses may be combined with another magic item in the same slot for a strictly linear price increase. * If a class or something gives you a bonus feat, and you already have it from somewhere else, I'll often allow you to trade out the old feat for one of similar nature. * You may exchange a standard action for a swift action. * The Body Wrap of Mighty Strikes now applies its bonuses continuously. * Bags of Holding work normally inside non-Bag-of-Holding-type Extradimensional spaces, such as Magnificant Mansion or Sanctum. Bags of Holding even describe themselves as "non-dimensional", plus, see the large Bag of Holding section below. I just don't see this rule as anything more than a hassle. They do retain their deleterious interaction with portable holes. * Vorpal weapons are more powerful. On a roll of 20, and a successful critical hit confirmation, a vorpal weapon goes "snicker snack", and its terrible sharpness transcends the physical boundries of the weapon, massively damaging the opponent, and typically beheading and killing them instantly. If a creature is mythic, immune to critical hits, not subject to instant death from beheading, or fits other criteria as the DM decides, it instead takes x10 weapon damage and may be partially dismembered. * Universalist Wizards gain the Metacharge ability (and its bonus feat) at level 4. They do not lose Hand of the Apprentice when they do so. * The "Witch's Brew" hex has the following addition: "At 10th level a witch may instead spend double the standard time (minimum two days) and half again the cost to brew two potions. At 15th level she may spend the standard time and half again the cost to brew two potions, or double the cost and double the time (still two days minimum) to get three potions." This change is because I like witches and potions. (Okay, it also gives some parity with the Alchemist discovery "Dilution".) * The spell polymorph can now also transform a creature into a vermin or monstrous humanoid as vermin shape I and monstrous physique II. The spell greater polymorph as vermin shape II and monstrous physique IV. The spell shapechange includes vermin shape II, monstrous physique IV, and undead anatomy IV among the list of spells as which it can function. These spells were released after polymorph and shapechange were created, but are in line with their abilities and function. * All versions of the Summon Monster and Summon Nature's Ally spells may summon some monsters other than those on the primary lists. Additions need a CR that matches that of other creatures on the list, and to be thematically appropriate (for summon monster, certain creatures may only be appropriate for specialized casters of one sort or another, eg, genies, peri, jyoti, sceaduinar, shae, creatures of dream, creatures from Leng, etc). Creatures of the following types from Bestiary 2, 3, and 4 are explicitly acceptable: for summon monster: agathions, daemons, inevitables, proteans, aeons, and psychopomps; for both: some new animals for summon nature's ally: Kami, some fey, Leshy, most other plant creatures, additional animals, and some magical beasts. If necessary, I'll make an explicit list available once we begin. Only creatures from Paizo Pathfinder core and periphery products are available, though I might make an exceptions, particularly for animals. Clear any additions you want to use with me, and make sure you have the stat block prepared. I also reserve the right to ban or change the spell degree of any creature after seeing it in play. This change is because the current lists contain only creatures from the first bestiary. The publishers have stated they do not intend to expand this list officially. They want to avoid additional playtesting, prevent choice fatigue, and to reinforce the distinction of themed summoners. However I believe that at the very least the explicit additions I mention are mandatory for a well-rounded summoning table (for instance, at the very least it feels way too weird to not at least have one of each of the main outsider families available). Mythic specific rulings * Arcane Knowledge and Divine knowledge both blow many goats (I'm gonna say no fewer than ten or twelve goats each). Seriously. Three first level spells is considered equivalent to immunity to curses, starflight, CHANNEL FUCKING POWER, shit like that? Here's a rough attempt to fix it: You may select one spell per tier from a full-casting list (ie, witch or wizard/sorcerer for arcane knowledge, druid or cleric/oracle for divine knowledge). Add spells as appropriate when you gain tiers. The selected spell(s) are considered part of your class spell list, and you cast them as you cast your other spells (they are arcane/divine, as appropriate). Thus you can use them freely from spell trigger and completion items. Obviously, despite the new type of the spell, others of your class cannot learn this special knowledge (a'doy), nor are the spells part of anyone else's class list (with all that implies for their ability to use magic items you create with it). Your mythic knowledge does not aid you in, eg, researching an equivalent spell. If you are a witch or wizard you learn these spells and add them to your spell book/familiar for free. You may select these abilities as an oracle or sorcerer, and you may replace known spells with selected spells if you like, or wait and add them to your spells known the next time you have the chance to do so. The highest level of the spells you may select is half your actual tier. You may not select a spell from a level unless you have at least as many spells of every lower level (discounting 0); eg, you may only select a third level spell if you have at least one 1st and 2nd level spell. You may only select a second fifth level spell if you have at least two spells of levels 1 through 4. You may select spells you are not yet able to cast. You may select this ability up to three times. Each time you select an additional spell per two tiers.